Tendancies
by Adverage
Summary: She says, "I don't know if I believe in true love," and it makes you want to teach her all about it. Red Snow/Red Beauty Oneshot.


I.

She says, "I don't know if I believe in true love," and it makes you want to teach her all about it but all you can say is, "Really?"

The forest feels safe in the middle of the day and the wolf can hear for miles. On the road you speak of everything and its warm enough to keep your hood tucked in your pack, the weight off your shoulders makes you feel like running. Sometimes you get a few strides ahead of Snow and have to remind yourself to slow down but it gives you a chance to look back at her. In the sunlight she is beautiful.

"I mean, I want it to exist, but how can you know something's real if you've never had it for yourself."

More than anything you want her to look at you and believe in love but she doesn't- even as her smile validates every second you've spent in silent hoping.

"Maybe you just need to have faith that it's going to find you."

"You make it sound like one day it's going to knock me off a horse."

You slow your steps to walk beside her and chuckle.

"Who knows, maybe it will or maybe it'll sneak up on you."

You're looking for a place to stay, Snow keeps talking about a cabin as if the pair of you will stumble across one and everything will fix itself. As if you can live together in the forest, hunting rabbits and picking berries and never seeing another soul for the rest of your lives. When she talks about it you can almost believe that its possible, that in the woods together you can keep her safe but you remember the wolf and think that maybe she'd be better off without you if only you had the strength of will to leave.

"I don't know. Falling in love…it just seems like a good way to get hurt. When you open yourself up like that what's to stop someone from just ripping everything out?"

Snow doesn't mean to raise the tragedy of your recently disemboweled sweetheart but that doesn't stop you from recalling the bloodstained clearing and maybe the taste in your mouth of something you've been trying hard to forget. With Peter you had wanted love badly enough to make it out of anything but Snow tucks her arm underneath yours and nobody could tell you this isn't what it feels like to want to give someone the world.

"Anyway, who needs it?"

She leans her head against your shoulder and keeps in perfect stride, she doesn't believe you yet but feeling her against your side you make a promise to keep her safe. Your ears prick at the sound of horses' hoofs on the road and the clinking of armor on the Queen's knights. Snow catches the concern in your eye and you feel her tighten her hold on your arm, "What? What is it?"

"Come on, we have to run."

You say, "I don't know if I believe in true love," and Belle smiles like she knows better and sets down her iced tea.

"Really?"

She looks like she's ready to talk you into it but you don't have an argument to prove your point so instead you shrug your shoulders and go back to swirling ice cubes around the bottom of your glass of root beer. Some days for lunch Belle comes over to the Diner and lets you pick anything you'd like off the menu for her to try, in exchange you take her book recommendations. You'd never been much for reading until you'd met her but last night you finished The Count of Monte Cristo and the conversation on revenge and the limits of love had begun. You wouldn't admit the lengths you'd already gone to but you'd learned your lesson.

"So you're telling me Ruby Lucas has never been in love?"

"I didn't say that…I just said I don't believe in true love."

Now she understands and she doesn't want to push if you don't want to talk about it and you don't want to talk about it, least of all with her. From the moment you saw her you felt like she could hear your heartbeat and sometimes you can hear hers even from across the bar but you try not to listen, it seems like an unfair advantage. Sometimes though, you can't help it, and sometimes when you look at her you can hear it speed up.

"Who needs it anyway? Love is just a way to trick yourself into believing you're not getting hurt."

You might be breaking her heart with your lack of faith but really it's for the best.

"Do you really believe that?"

Do you? Your hesitation bolsters her confidence.

"See, I know that's not true."

You chuckle, she has confidence in the face of your doubt, "And how's that?"

"Your favorite books. They're always the love stories, a few adventures here and there, but the romances are the ones you come back to."

To be honest you hadn't noticed but maybe she's right, you'd gone through Wuthering Heights in less than a week and asked for more. When you look up from your drink you can hear how loud her heart is beating, she wants you to say she's right but you don't know either way.

"If you say so."

That's all you can give her right now because it's all you have.

You have three selves now, Ruby and Red and the Wolf and the last thing you need is someone else's hand in your chest. That's what you tell yourself.

"I think that people who don't think they'll ever fall in love are the ones closest to it."

"That's optimistic," you begin to clean up her plate.

"And they're also the ones most likely to ignore love when it's right in front of them."

You pause to look at her and she's looking back, worried about you.

"So promise me something?"

"Sure."

"If you do find it, be brave enough to let it in."

"I promise."


End file.
